DSSS radio transmission systems, in contrast to more traditional radio transmission systems, use a signal bandwidth that is much broader than the information signal bandwidth. A wide band signal is generated by multiplying the narrowband information signal with a binary code, often designated as a spreading code, to generate the wideband signal that is transmitted. The original information signal can be recreated at the receiver by multiplying the received wideband signal by the same binary code (now designated as a de-spreading code) used to generate the wideband transmitted signal. In order to recover the intelligence the spreading and de-spreading codes must be in synchronism and amplitude match with each other.
DSSS transmission technology is now being applied to multi-user transmission systems such as cellular radio telephone systems. In such applications it is designated as code division multiple access (CDMA) to distinguish it from the prior TDMA (time division multiple access) and FDMA (frequency division multiple access) systems now in use. In the CDMA system the individual user channels (which are not distinguished by time of transmission or frequency differences) are each individually identified by a unique spreading and de-spreading code at both the transmitting and receiving end which is used to recover the individual users signal from the signals of other users and from background noise and interference.